Viajes y Raíces (Journeys and Origins) Presented by the Orchestra of St. Luke's
Mar 12, 2023
In-Person Tickets: FREE w/ RSVP
Flushing Town Hall requires all visitors, performers, and staff to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 and matching identification; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety.
Viajes y Raíces, or Journeys and Origins, is an intimate reflection on memory, place, and identity. The performance features the music of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León alongside formidable composers in León’s creative community: inti figgis-vizueta and Keyla Orozco. Paying homage to a wide variety of musical traditions, the concert program includes a series of string quartets, illuminating how each composer reflects on their own origins and explorations through their distinct musical language.
About the Artists:
Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba) is highly regarded as a composer, conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations. Her orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. Most recently, the London Philharmonic Orchestra announced Tania León as next Composer-in-Residence – a post she will hold for two seasons, beginning in September 2023.
Recent premieres include works for Los Angeles Philharmonic, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Grossman Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Jennifer Koh’s project, Alone Together. Appearances as guest conductor include Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, among others. Upcoming commissions feature works for the League of American Orchestras, and Claire Chase, flute, and The Crossing Choir with text by Rita Dove.
A founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas Festivals, was New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic, and is the founder/Artistic Director of Composers Now, a presenting, commissioning and advocacy organization for living composers.
Honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement, inductions into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowship awards from ASCAP Victor Herbert Award and The Koussevitzky Music and Guggenheim Foundations, among others. She also received a proclamation for Composers Now by New York City Mayor, and the MadWoman Festival Award in Music (Spain).
León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase College, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A CUNY Professor Emerita, she was awarded a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship, Chamber Music America’s 2022 National Service Award, and Harvard University’s 2022 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award.
Bio courtesy of www.tanialeon.com.
inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) is a New York-based composer who captures the sounds of the magically real, braiding a childhood of overlapping immigrant communities and Black-founded Freedom schools—in Chocolate City (DC)—with direct Andean & Irish heritage and a deep connection to the land. inti is the recipient of the National Sawdust Hildegard Award, The ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award, and fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the American Composers Orchestra. This year’s projects include Amaru for cellist Jay Campbell with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, music by yourself for Kronos Quartet, Seven Sides of Fire for Attacca Quartet with the American Composers Orchestra, Earths to Come for Roomful of Teeth with animator Rose Bond, and hushing for Adam Tendler’s Inheritances project, among others. The Washington Post says “her music feels sprouted between structures, liberated from certainty and wrought from a language we’d do well to learn.”
Upcoming projects include new works for the Kronos Quartet, Cramer Quartet, The Rhythm Method, Ensemble Reflektor with PODIUM Esslingen, and Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall.
inti studied with Marcos Balter, Felipe Lara, George Lewis, and Donnacha Dennehy. She received mentorship from Angélica Negrón, Andrew Norman, Tania León, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Gavilán Rayna Russom.
​
inti honors her Quechua bisabuela, who was the only woman butcher on the whole plaza central and used to fight men with a machete.​ inti is committed to creating and supporting trans and Indigenous futures through her work and advocacy.
Bio courtesy of www.inticomposes.com.
Born in Cuba, composer Keyla Orozco has developed an international career, which started since her study years in Havana, and continued while establishing in The Netherlands and later in the United States, where she currently lives and works.
Her compositional work has been awarded with the Guggenheim and the Cintas Fellowships, Composition Grant by Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard University), All Classical Portland's Recording Inclussivity Inniciative Prize, Two-Years Composition Grant by the Dutch Performing Arts Funds, a Residency Fellowship at MacDowell Colony, First and Second Prizes at International Composition Contest René Amengüal in Chile, and the National Cuban prize for Symphonic Composition UNEAC.
Keyla has received several commissions by the main Arts Funding organizations in The Netherlands; and later in the US, to write for internationally acclaimed ensembles and soloists such as: Nederlands Kamerkoor, Nederlands Fluitorkest, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ricciotti Ensemble, David Kweksilber Big Band, Mondriaan Kwartet, String Orchestra of New York City, ZOFO piano duet, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, Toomai String Quintet, and many others. Her works are performed in festivals and events around the world at venues such as The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, National Sawdust, The National Opera Center, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan het Ij, Bimhuis, and Paradiso Theater , among others.
​
Her curiosity for exploring Latin-American folk rhythms and the idea of integrating them into her compositions, leaded her in 2006 to realize a field-research on the traditional Venezuelan/Colombian Music known as "Música Llanera". The project was subsidized by the Nederlands Fonds Podiumkunsten (Dutch Performing Art Fund). As a result, her later compositions have been strongly influenced by this music, being the case of 'Estudio del Pajarillo', 'Habanera en Pajarillo voor de gestolen fiets', 'Met de schoenen' 'Piezas de Bolsillo', 'Traveling Shoe Stories', and 'Bridges'.
After organizing diverse inter-disciplinary events in Cuba and he Netherlands, she co-founded in 2004 the Stichting PerpetuumM, a foundation to promote Latin-American Arts and Culture in that country. Festival ‘Q-ba Música’ (2004) and Series ‘Latijns-Amerikaanse componisten aan het ij’ (2006-07) were projects co-directed and produced by Keyla Orozco within this enterprise, in which she worked until 2008. See more...
Orozco's teaching career started as a teacher of Counterpoint at Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana. Then, she has worked in the Netherlands and the US both at institutions and privately. She served as a teaching assistant of Composition in the class of Theo Loevendie at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and as a Composition and Piano faculty at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She has led master classes and lectures at Universities, Conservatories, and events in Europe, Latin America, and USA. Keyla has taught Piano, Composition, Theory, and General Music at different private schools and music centers in the Washington DC-Metropolitan Area and New York City, as well as developing her own music composition workshops for children. She is currently serving as a music faculty for Early and Elementary ages at Concord Hill School, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Keyla received professional music education since the age of 8. She started with Piano at the Esteban Salas Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba, under the solid tradition of the Russian School. She obtained her diploma in Piano Pedagogy and Performance at the National School of the Arts (Escuela Nacional de Artes -ENA-) in Havana, with Maestra Yleana Bautista as a main teacher. She finished her Bachelor in Music Composition under the guidance of Maestro Harold Gramatges at the Higher Institute of the Arts (Instituto Superior de Artes -ISA-) in Havana. Later on, she followed advanced composition studies in The Netherlands with Professor Theo Loevendie, at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (Koninklijk Conservatorium) and Conservatory of Amsterdam.
Bio courtesy of www.keylaorozco.com.
In-Person Tickets: FREE w/ RSVP
Flushing Town Hall requires all visitors, performers, and staff to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 and matching identification; wearing a mask is optional but recommended. For more details, please visit www.flushingtownhall.org/covid-safety.
Viajes y Raíces, or Journeys and Origins, is an intimate reflection on memory, place, and identity. The performance features the music of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Tania León alongside formidable composers in León’s creative community: inti figgis-vizueta and Keyla Orozco. Paying homage to a wide variety of musical traditions, the concert program includes a series of string quartets, illuminating how each composer reflects on their own origins and explorations through their distinct musical language.
About the Artists:
Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba) is highly regarded as a composer, conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations. Her orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. Most recently, the London Philharmonic Orchestra announced Tania León as next Composer-in-Residence – a post she will hold for two seasons, beginning in September 2023.
Recent premieres include works for Los Angeles Philharmonic, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Grossman Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Jennifer Koh’s project, Alone Together. Appearances as guest conductor include Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, among others. Upcoming commissions feature works for the League of American Orchestras, and Claire Chase, flute, and The Crossing Choir with text by Rita Dove.
A founding member of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas Festivals, was New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic, and is the founder/Artistic Director of Composers Now, a presenting, commissioning and advocacy organization for living composers.
Honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement, inductions into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowship awards from ASCAP Victor Herbert Award and The Koussevitzky Music and Guggenheim Foundations, among others. She also received a proclamation for Composers Now by New York City Mayor, and the MadWoman Festival Award in Music (Spain).
León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase College, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A CUNY Professor Emerita, she was awarded a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship, Chamber Music America’s 2022 National Service Award, and Harvard University’s 2022 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award.
Bio courtesy of www.tanialeon.com.
inti figgis-vizueta (b. 1993) is a New York-based composer who captures the sounds of the magically real, braiding a childhood of overlapping immigrant communities and Black-founded Freedom schools—in Chocolate City (DC)—with direct Andean & Irish heritage and a deep connection to the land. inti is the recipient of the National Sawdust Hildegard Award, The ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award, and fellowships from Dumbarton Oaks, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the American Composers Orchestra. This year’s projects include Amaru for cellist Jay Campbell with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, music by yourself for Kronos Quartet, Seven Sides of Fire for Attacca Quartet with the American Composers Orchestra, Earths to Come for Roomful of Teeth with animator Rose Bond, and hushing for Adam Tendler’s Inheritances project, among others. The Washington Post says “her music feels sprouted between structures, liberated from certainty and wrought from a language we’d do well to learn.”
Upcoming projects include new works for the Kronos Quartet, Cramer Quartet, The Rhythm Method, Ensemble Reflektor with PODIUM Esslingen, and Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall.
inti studied with Marcos Balter, Felipe Lara, George Lewis, and Donnacha Dennehy. She received mentorship from Angélica Negrón, Andrew Norman, Tania León, Amy Beth Kirsten, and Gavilán Rayna Russom.
​
inti honors her Quechua bisabuela, who was the only woman butcher on the whole plaza central and used to fight men with a machete.​ inti is committed to creating and supporting trans and Indigenous futures through her work and advocacy.
Bio courtesy of www.inticomposes.com.
Born in Cuba, composer Keyla Orozco has developed an international career, which started since her study years in Havana, and continued while establishing in The Netherlands and later in the United States, where she currently lives and works.
Her compositional work has been awarded with the Guggenheim and the Cintas Fellowships, Composition Grant by Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard University), All Classical Portland's Recording Inclussivity Inniciative Prize, Two-Years Composition Grant by the Dutch Performing Arts Funds, a Residency Fellowship at MacDowell Colony, First and Second Prizes at International Composition Contest René Amengüal in Chile, and the National Cuban prize for Symphonic Composition UNEAC.
Keyla has received several commissions by the main Arts Funding organizations in The Netherlands; and later in the US, to write for internationally acclaimed ensembles and soloists such as: Nederlands Kamerkoor, Nederlands Fluitorkest, Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ricciotti Ensemble, David Kweksilber Big Band, Mondriaan Kwartet, String Orchestra of New York City, ZOFO piano duet, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, Toomai String Quintet, and many others. Her works are performed in festivals and events around the world at venues such as The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, National Sawdust, The National Opera Center, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw aan het Ij, Bimhuis, and Paradiso Theater , among others.
​
Her curiosity for exploring Latin-American folk rhythms and the idea of integrating them into her compositions, leaded her in 2006 to realize a field-research on the traditional Venezuelan/Colombian Music known as "Música Llanera". The project was subsidized by the Nederlands Fonds Podiumkunsten (Dutch Performing Art Fund). As a result, her later compositions have been strongly influenced by this music, being the case of 'Estudio del Pajarillo', 'Habanera en Pajarillo voor de gestolen fiets', 'Met de schoenen' 'Piezas de Bolsillo', 'Traveling Shoe Stories', and 'Bridges'.
After organizing diverse inter-disciplinary events in Cuba and he Netherlands, she co-founded in 2004 the Stichting PerpetuumM, a foundation to promote Latin-American Arts and Culture in that country. Festival ‘Q-ba Música’ (2004) and Series ‘Latijns-Amerikaanse componisten aan het ij’ (2006-07) were projects co-directed and produced by Keyla Orozco within this enterprise, in which she worked until 2008. See more...
Orozco's teaching career started as a teacher of Counterpoint at Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana. Then, she has worked in the Netherlands and the US both at institutions and privately. She served as a teaching assistant of Composition in the class of Theo Loevendie at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and as a Composition and Piano faculty at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She has led master classes and lectures at Universities, Conservatories, and events in Europe, Latin America, and USA. Keyla has taught Piano, Composition, Theory, and General Music at different private schools and music centers in the Washington DC-Metropolitan Area and New York City, as well as developing her own music composition workshops for children. She is currently serving as a music faculty for Early and Elementary ages at Concord Hill School, in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Keyla received professional music education since the age of 8. She started with Piano at the Esteban Salas Conservatory in Santiago de Cuba, under the solid tradition of the Russian School. She obtained her diploma in Piano Pedagogy and Performance at the National School of the Arts (Escuela Nacional de Artes -ENA-) in Havana, with Maestra Yleana Bautista as a main teacher. She finished her Bachelor in Music Composition under the guidance of Maestro Harold Gramatges at the Higher Institute of the Arts (Instituto Superior de Artes -ISA-) in Havana. Later on, she followed advanced composition studies in The Netherlands with Professor Theo Loevendie, at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (Koninklijk Conservatorium) and Conservatory of Amsterdam.
Bio courtesy of www.keylaorozco.com.
